Constructing Meaning in a Science Methods Course for Prospective Elementary Teachers

How do prospective elementary science teachers think? This case study 
• reveals thinking patterns common to preservice elementary teachers;• identifies their behavioral characteristics while learning to teach science which are not commonly noted in current literature;• provides change strategies to accelerate preservice elementary teachers embracing the holistic, constructivist, inquiry/practice-based paradigm consistent with the standards set by the curriculum.
The chapters in this book immerse the reader in a sequence of episodes in this science methods course, and reveal the adventure of turning theory into practice while analyzing student-student/student-instructor interactions and their outcomes in an inquiry-driven, flipped classroom. 
Strategies presented empower preservice elementary teachers to
• implement national and state standards;• change science learning/teaching from “business as usual” to applying science and engineering practices in the classroom;• make cognitive and behavioral changes required to shift paradigms and eliminate science anxiety;• pass through stages of grief inherent in the loss of dominant mechanistic paradigm.
This book will interest a wide readership including science educators; scientists and engineers; administrators, supervisors, and elementary teachers in a clinical education setting; preservice elementary teachers; and anyone seeking to improve STEM education in elementary schools.